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Job applicants asked to turn over their Facebook passwords
New York Daily News ^ | Shannon McFarland

Posted on 03/20/2012 7:18:33 AM PDT by bjorn14

When Justin Bassett interviewed for a new job, he expected the usual questions about experience and references. So he was astonished when the interviewer asked for something else: his Facebook username and password.

Bassett, a New York City statistician, had just finished answering a few character questions when the interviewer turned to her computer to search for his Facebook page. But she couldn’t see his private profile. She turned back and asked him to hand over his login information.

Bassett refused and withdrew his application, saying he didn’t want to work for a company that would seek such personal information. But as the job market steadily improves, other job candidates are confronting the same question from prospective employers, and some of them cannot afford to say no.

(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
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To: Nervous Tick

So do you ask for all email addresses and passwords also. When do you do a in house inspection along with a complete background check in which check all acquaintances from the last twenty years. Additionally how can you afford all of this, it must cost a fortune.


61 posted on 03/20/2012 8:02:29 AM PDT by Ratman83
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To: Nervous Tick

“I’d kick the snotty SOB out of my office so quick his head would be swimming.”

And I would sue you so fast your head would spin. You would spend the next $250,000 and 2 years in litigation only to lose and pay up both from personal and corporate funds. See, piercing the corporate veil is easy when the corporation doesn’t sponsor your bad behavior. You lose the corporate protections once you personally act badly. Both would pay heavily. You wouldn’t be the first to suffer such consequences; just another in a long line of know-it-alls that lose in court.


62 posted on 03/20/2012 8:03:02 AM PDT by CodeToad (I'm so right-wing if I lifted my left leg I'd go into a spin.)
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To: Nervous Tick
You really don’t get how this works, do you?

I guess I don't. It's one thing to request viewing access to someone's page, but username and password? That's ridiculous.

Here’s a hint. Director and VP-level candidates aren’t asked for their Facebook passwords.

How about managers? Team leaders? When will current employees be required to hand over this information? Personal email username/passwords? Internet browser histories?

63 posted on 03/20/2012 8:03:03 AM PDT by Future Snake Eater (Don't stop. Keep moving!)
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To: Nervous Tick

Well, where I come from your word and your reputation are important. If you like to push your employees around like a bully then word will get out, news will spread (I am sure it already has) that you are an authoritarian type and like to squash the bugs. Great thing is, the better people will not come to work for you, won’t interview with you, and you will see less and less quality in your perspective employees. Eventually the market will shift again, and you will go begging, and your reputation, your honor, your past treatment of employees will come back to haunt you.

You are correct, it is Market Driven. What kind of market are you building?


64 posted on 03/20/2012 8:03:23 AM PDT by King_Corey (www.kingcorey.com -- Twitter @KingCorey_Com)
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To: GOPsterinMA

>> *I’ll assume that there are 1 or 2 HR-types out there that are competent, but the remaining 99.999999999999998% are worthless.

That’s been my experience, too. However, usually they’re worthless not because they do too draconian a job of vetting potential hires, but because they *don’t* vet potential hires thoroughly enough. They’re too busy making sure that the company is scrubbed clean of un-PC goings-on, and hiring “consultants” to “train” everyone in worthless business fad garbage.


65 posted on 03/20/2012 8:03:43 AM PDT by Nervous Tick (Trust in God, but row away from the rocks!)
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To: Ratman83

“Additionally how can you afford all of this, it must cost a fortune.”

He doesn’t. He’s just mouthing off.


66 posted on 03/20/2012 8:04:39 AM PDT by CodeToad (I'm so right-wing if I lifted my left leg I'd go into a spin.)
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To: Auntie Mame
My daughter’s prospective employer recently asked her for a copy of last year’s W2.

That has been going on in the sales field for years. A new employer wants to make sure you can sell and to make sure you are not all talk. A W-2 tells all.

67 posted on 03/20/2012 8:05:02 AM PDT by trailhkr1
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To: 1rudeboy

Vodka does not smell, nice try.


68 posted on 03/20/2012 8:05:48 AM PDT by UB355 (Slower traffic keep right)
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To: Future Snake Eater; Nervous Tick
How about managers? Team leaders? When will current employees be required to hand over this information? Personal email username/passwords? Internet browser histories?

Diaries? Personal letters?

69 posted on 03/20/2012 8:06:12 AM PDT by kevkrom (Note to self: proofread, then post. It's better that way.)
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To: GOPsterinMA

Agree that there are a lot of dirtbags working in HR. But ‘by ENLARGE?’ Are you freaking KIDDING me? [Hint: the phrase is ‘by and large.’


70 posted on 03/20/2012 8:07:35 AM PDT by gemoftheocean (...geez, this all seems so straight forward and logical to me...)
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To: GOPsterinMA
No matter what position I've held or industry I've worked in, the HR department is the worst part of any organization, bar none.

I have a postulate that says that the further away any part of a business is from an actual customer, the more socialistic and bureaucratic it becomes. HR, IT, and Accounting are typical examples, with HR typically being the worst.

71 posted on 03/20/2012 8:08:24 AM PDT by kevkrom (Note to self: proofread, then post. It's better that way.)
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To: Nervous Tick
Therefore when I hire I want to know A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E-L-Y EVERYTHING about that candidate I can POSSIBLY know

The problem with this is that you need to add "LEGALLY ALLOWED" to know, about a prospective candidate. Facebook will give you information, it will also give you information that as a hiring manager, you are not legally allowed to know (in justifying a hire/not hire).

It's a very fine line, and although I agree with you completely, if you have that knowledge, you'd best make sure that your decision to not hire, doesn't reference it a bit. That's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

And here is reason 5012 that I don't have a facebook account. :-)

72 posted on 03/20/2012 8:09:35 AM PDT by RikaStrom (Pray for Obama - Psalm 109:8 "Let his days be few; and let another take his place of leadership.")
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To: Nervous Tick

“”Here’s a hint. Director and VP-level candidates aren’t asked for their Facebook passwords. (At least not at the first interview.)

Executives are asked for their social media accounts and other information to help ensure no issues arise. Executives by law are a different class of employee and held to a different legal standard. You are obviously just a frustrated junior employee only mouthing off. I have serious doubts that you have ever been in a hiring manager’s position outside of a two person company.


73 posted on 03/20/2012 8:09:39 AM PDT by CodeToad (I'm so right-wing if I lifted my left leg I'd go into a spin.)
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To: magritte
A company that wants your Facebook password is a company you NEVER want to work for.

This will be the norm in several years. Most Fortune 500 companies now do credit and background checks for just regular run of the mill jobs let alone drug testing etc.

People balked at first just like this Facebook deal but now they don't think anything about it.

We are giving away our personal freedoms and privacy way to easily.

74 posted on 03/20/2012 8:10:36 AM PDT by trailhkr1
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To: CodeToad

>> And I would sue you so fast your head would spin.

You’re living in a delusional world of your own making. If in an interview with VP of R&D you demanded the company’s password and he threw you out for that, you’d sue and win a quarter of a million bucks? ROFLMAO.

Tell you what, you wouldn’t be working for me for long, I can tell. You have an over-inflated sense of worth, an entitlement mentality, and an inability to reason effectively; those traits usually belong to mediocre programmers, not the best ones.

Plus, I note it’s 10AM central time. You’re not posting to FR on your employers’ time, are you? Or maybe you’re unemployed... I’m sorry if so, but I can’t say I don’t see why.


75 posted on 03/20/2012 8:15:09 AM PDT by Nervous Tick (Trust in God, but row away from the rocks!)
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To: Dilbert San Diego
Ya, I wondered about that. What about those of us who don’t do Facebook? Is there an assumption that everyone is on Facebook? I have wondered about this. Is it legal to discriminate against someone in a job based on what is on Facebook?

perhaps one day only non-persons will be without such credentials. Perhaps that day is closing in.

76 posted on 03/20/2012 8:16:03 AM PDT by the invisib1e hand (knowledge puffeth; information deludeth.)
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To: CodeToad

My, my, my, we are presumptuous, aren’t we?

You’ll believe whatever you wish.

Bye now. Good luck.


77 posted on 03/20/2012 8:18:03 AM PDT by Nervous Tick (Trust in God, but row away from the rocks!)
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To: trailhkr1

I wish EVERY employer would do this. Why? Because my family life and stability is one of my strengths, and my Facebook page only proves that. Now I’ve known plenty of people throughout my working career who has the home life of a drunken deadbeat Dad tenfold, but with first impressions would probably have the BS skills to do better at an initial interview than I would.

Because if you knew some of these people like I know them, you wouldn’t let them in the door.

Most employers don’t like you talking about family or what your core principles are in a job interview. They just want to know if you can do the job.

Core principles…Why isn’t this important, it’s important to me, why not anyone else?


78 posted on 03/20/2012 8:19:35 AM PDT by skinndogNN
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To: Jewbacca

“We had putzes posting FB pictures from inside nuclear sites.”

I THINK I see the problem here.

What’n’ell are they doing with cameras inside nuclear sites, anyway!!??

We can access facebook, but cannot have a phone, camera, or other electronic devices.


79 posted on 03/20/2012 8:19:41 AM PDT by FrogMom (There is no such thing as an honest democrat!)
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To: Nervous Tick

Moral: corporations are safe havens for people who cannot make it in the real world.


80 posted on 03/20/2012 8:24:25 AM PDT by the invisib1e hand (knowledge puffeth; information deludeth.)
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